Alea Adigweme’s Letters from Her Ninth Grade Boyfriend

Back in ninth grade, Alea Adigweme was in a magnet program with Steve, a smart, passionate kid with a wild home life and a pentagram on his T-shirt. Four weeks later, their torrid affair had concluded, conducted almost exclusively with handwritten notes, which Alea brought into the studio. Despite his youth and misspellings, Steve actually articulated quite a lot about the real experience of helpless, romantic love, and Alea and I talk about how ninth grade courtship echoes all the way into adult relationships in this episode. (Right-click the small “Click here to start download from sendspace” in the small blue box, not the fake-out ads. Soon, a podcast will exist, somehow.)